


Mind Over Matter

by whatthefuck



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: AU but still werewolves and supernatural nonsense, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Derek had a stalker, Fluff, Getting (Back) Together, M/M, Misunderstandings, Teacher Stiles, be warned, dating apps, mentioned Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-01
Updated: 2016-05-01
Packaged: 2018-06-05 19:19:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6718429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatthefuck/pseuds/whatthefuck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles' horrible encounter with a dating app leaves him heartbroken. But when he comes across the man behind it all, it would seem that there's more to the story than Stiles ever knew. And now he's coming face to face with who he thought was the love of his life.</p><p>Probably still is, even after everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mind Over Matter

**Author's Note:**

> Brief mentions of homophobia if you don't want to read that. It doesn't come from Stiles or Derek.

He can see the principal shaking hands with a familiar man from the seat at his desk, but it's not until the man laughs does Stiles realize where he knows him from. 

Shit. 

No way is this happening. 

Stiles does the only thing he can think of. He runs.

To Kira's classroom, that is. He's not an animal to leave all of those parents waiting in his classroom for him for the rest of the evening. For now they can wait a few minutes while he goes on a "coffee break."

He skids to a stop in front of Kira's classroom, which to his luck has only one mother waiting with her child for their meeting. He waves at the child, before excusing himself and grabbing Kira before she can make her way to the duo sitting at the kids' desk. 

"Kira, Kira wait," he pants, slightly out of breath.

Kira holds his arm and looks at him with concern. "Stiles? Are you okay?"

He shakes his head vigorously. "Nope. No, I am not a-okay. I am 100% _not okay_."

Kira turns back to the parent and child, who are now looking over at them curiously. She smiles at the kid and says, "James, how about you show your mommy what we did in the reading corner this week? I'm sorry Mrs.Walker, this will only take a minute." 

The mother nods, and takes her child's hand and he leads her to the corner of the classroom. Once they're thoroughly preoccupied, Kira turns back to Stiles.

"Dude, what's going on?" she asks, leading him to her desk.

Stiles grimaces, remembering the man in the hallway and the guy he knew from his online dating experience. "You remember that one guy I spoke to on the Love2Love app? With the beard and the-"

"Who broke your heart?"

"Derek."

"Yes?" 

"What about- wait." Kira looks up at him, eyes comically wide. 

Stiles looks back at her, face frozen in horror. 

The two turn their heads to look at the man standing in the doorway, confusion written across his face. 

Stiles squeaks and swings his head back around in the opposite direction, hoping Derek hasn't seen his face. 

Kira elbows him as she gets up off of the desk. "Uh- Hi. I'm Kira Yukimura. I teach third grade." She sticks out her hand for Derek to shake as the man walks in to the classroom. 

"Derek Hale, i'm starting as the finance manager for the school next week" he says, "How did you know my name?"

"Oh, well, you were mentioned in the weekly meeting-" Kira starts, bless her for coming up with something so quickly. If it were Stiles, he would be panicking right now. 

Which is... exactly what he's doing. 

Stiles, in all his 26 year old glory, has no idea how to remove himself from this situation. He tries to edge his way out of the classroom discreetly, moving slowly so as not to attract any attention, but James, _James,_ the little devil, chooses that exact moment to look up from the reading corner and ask, "Mister Stiles, what are you doing?" 

Stiles freezes, eyes closing as he takes in a deep breath, controlling himself before he carries the child away and in to the industrial sized bins at the back of the school.

"Uhm-"

"Stiles?" He hears Derek say. "Stiles Stilinski?"

Stiles doesn't want to look, doesn't want to open his eyes. Because if he does he'll just remember those horrid messages that ended a could-have-been-but-never-quite-was relationship. 

He knows he can't avoid Derek forever, but he can try.

"I- uh, I have to go, I have parents waiting." he says, before he runs out of Kira's classroom.

\----

Three days later, on a Monday evening, Stiles is still at the school, finishing his marking for his fourth graders because he hates taking work home with him to do. He's misplaced homework one too many times, and he knows what it used to feel like when teacher's lost his homework after he'd spent days on it. 

In any case, it's getting late, and he's sure the only one's left at the school aside from him are Barbara the school keeper and Ms Whittacker, the vice principal. It's the only reason why his music is up so loud. 

He doesn't hear the knocks on his classroom door, and most definitely doesn't hear the footsteps that come to a stop at his desk, until a shadow is cast over the papers in front of him. When Stiles looks up, the unmanly shriek that comes out of him can only be blamed on how intimidating Derek Hale looks from this angle, when he's looming over you with eyebrows of doom and a beard that seems to be eating his face. Nevertheless, it's a gorgeous beard, and one of the first things that attracted Stiles to Derek's profile in the first place. 

Derek apologizes for scaring him with an impish grin. He seems to be trying to pretend that their previous encounters haven't happened. 

"What do you want."

Derek's smile seems to falter, and he looks a bit upset. 

It doesn't make Stiles feel _anything_. Derek deserves it. 

"I-" Derek starts. He huffs, and grabs a chair from one of the children's desks to his right. It's quite a funny sight, considering how big Derek is and how small those chairs are. Derek's knees nearly go up to his chest. 

They sit in silence for a few minutes; Derek staring intently at the board behind Stiles, and Stiles ignoring him in favour of the marking in front of him.

"I don't know what I did wrong." Derek says, suddenly.

Stiles looks up, or down really, at Derek, affronted and angry. 

"You don't-!" How dare he? Stiles chucks down his pen and pushes back from his desk aggressively, making a move to get up. 

Derek seems surprised at Stiles's anger. But he quickly continues. "One day, I logged on to the app, and you were gone. No message, no sign of you. And now? Now I get to meet you in real life, but you hate me. You avoid me at every turn, you can't even look at me."

Derek sighs, raking a hand through his hair and mussing it up. It falls slightly flatter than it was before. He looks like he's aged years in these mere moments.

"I deleted the app." Stiles tells him. He leans back on the chair, head tilted up at resting on the back of it. His hands grip the armrest tightly, knuckles turning white. 

"Why?"

"You FUCKING KNOW WHY!" He screams. It's sudden, he didn't expect to get so loud, and neither did Derek from the look on his face.

"Wha-"

"Oh, stop acting all innocent, Derek! You messaged me one morning, at 3 am, told me that I was just a huge fag, and that I should leave you the fuck alone because it was all just a joke for you! See how long you can lead on the gay guy until it wasn't fun anymore!" he shouts. "Do you remember now, Derek? DO YOU?" 

Derek jumps up, his chair toppling over with the force of his movement. He seems angry now, too. 

"What?! Stiles, come on! You know me, why would I write that?!"

"I don't know you, Derek. I don't know you at all." Stiles sees how it affects Derek, how he stumbles back a bit as if physically hit by the words. 

"You- I woul- " Derek screams in frustration, "I'm bisexual, Stiles. I- why would I call you.. those words? This-"

"I don't know, Derek. I don't care anymore." Even though he does. "I think you should leave." he says. Stiles is tearing up, and he can hardly see what's in front of him. He can't believe that, even after all these months, he still has feelings for this prick. God, this fucking sucks. 

He breathes in shakily, rubs at his eyes to get rid of the tears, but the start to fall anyway. He quickly wheels himself back in to his desk and grabs a tissue from the box on the edge. 

When he hears the door close, he finally lets go and cries. He lets out all of the sounds his body just can't seem to keep in, and shakes, snot and tears combining in what is probably one of the lowest points in his life.

\-----

The next day, Derek is there again, holding two phones. He looks.. well, Stiles doesn't know what Derek is feeling.. but he doesn't want to hear Derek's explanation just because the guy suddenly feels guilty.

"I'm sorry," Derek whispers. 

"Please." He shakes his head. "Please. Don't."

"You don't understand." Derek starts to move closer, this time coming to kneel in front of Stiles, pushing out his chair, instead of finding his own to sit in. 

"I want you to understand, Stiles. Because i'm pretty sure I was fucking completely in love with you-"

Stiles heart drops at the past tense, belatedly realising that perhaps Derek doesn't feel the same anymore, but that he feels like he needs to clear things up for the guy that still does have feelings in this _thing_ between them. 

"-and then suddenly you drop off the face of the planet. Imagine my surprise when I find you here on the day I finally get the job i've been waiting for, for months. I- I was so happy to see you, Stiles. But you weren't happy to see me."

Stiles sniffs, tries to clear his throat to say something, anything, when Derek continues. He places two phones down on the table in front of Stiles. They're both exactly the same, make and model, colour and screens.

"Wha-?"

"One of these phones is mine," Derek says, talking over him. "The other one was a replica made specifically to swap it out for mine," 

Stiles turns both phones over, cataloging each thing about their appearances, trying to note any differences. They're both exactly the same, right down to scratches. 

"What the fuck?"

Derek laughs, but it's mirthless and short. "I had a stalker. For months. I didn't even realize until one day I unlocked the phone and all traces of you were gone. The girl- Jennifer, or Julia, really- she bumped in to me outside my own home and switched the phones out, so she could monitor everything I was doing. It was creepy and evasive, and I wouldn't have even noticed if it wasn't for you. Because on one phone I had your number, and on the other I didn't. She erased it all."

Stiles can't believe this is happening. "That doesn't explain the messages."

"Actually, I think it does. It only made sense to me a few minutes ago, when you said that about the messages. But it got me thinking, it would have been so easy for her to do that."

"You're blaming your stalker?" 

"I know it sounds..ludicrous, but hear me out, okay?" When Stiles nods, Derek continues. "I went to the store I bought it from, took the phone with me to ask why I kept losing contacts. I didn't realize she kept finding ways to switch the phones until the one I had in the store was her one, so the serial numbers didn't match up, the phone number didn't match up either. The guy told me that the phone I had in my hand was completely different to the one I bought."

"Shit, man." Stiles rubs his face with both hands. 

"I'm sorry that she said those things to you, Stiles. But none of them were true. Don't even think for a second that they were true."

"Can I-?" Stiles nods towards the phones, and Derek nods his consent. 

He unlocks the phones. They're both the same in the apps they have, the backgrounds, everything. "Holy Shit." he says. "How the fuck did she manage to do this?" 

"She was a druid," Derek shrugs. "Used some of her powers to influence people around me to go through my phone and report back to her, like when I was in the library, or they broke in to my home when I went running. She deleted my sisters' numbers, my friends, a lot of people, actually. But she slipped up."

Stiles clicks on the contacts on both phones, and understands what Derek means. The numbers available on both phones are different, each of them offering different contacts on the list. Clearly she wasn't as thorough as she thought. 

"Where is she now?" He asks. 

"Dead."

Stiles' eyes widen, and he glances up in shock. Derek's sitting on the floor below him, face blank and acting nonchalant. 

"Did you-?"

"No. When I found out, I chased her, she started running and got hit by a truck."

Stiles sucks in a breath, "Fuuuuuuck," he sighs. 

"Look, I don't- I know that you'll probably associate me with those horrible messages, and I understand if you don't want to see me again outside the school, but I just wanted to explain." Derek gets up from the floor, brushes off his pants before he leans over to pick up the two phones. 

It registers then, that this is Stiles' opportunity to fix this. The ball is in his court. 

He gets up, too, and grabs a hold of Derek's arm before the man walks away.

"I want us to start again. Completely from scratch. We ignore the dating app stuff, and we get to know each other as ourselves, as Stiles and Derek, yeah?"

Derek smiles, and it's truly breathtaking. "Yeah. Yeah, i'd like that."

Stiles grins, "Cool. Yeah," he sighs, hands travelling down Derek's arms to reach his hands, their fingers intertwining. 

"Is now too soon to say that it's really weird you have both the phones," Stiles can't help but say, nodding down at the phones in Derek's other hand. 

Derek blushes, shifting on his feet. "Well, actually, they're supposed to be in police custody, but I- my sister Laura's a cop, and she helped me out."

Stiles grins, "Dude, my dad's the Sheriff. I know exactly how serious that is. I can't believe you got your sister to break the law for you." 

"I would do anything for you," Derek says. "Anything."

"I think a few dates would suffice, don't you?" 

Derek moves closer, their fingers still intertwined, and their knees knocking together. He brushes his nose against Stiles', and Stiles just about dies from the cuteness of it all. 

Also the feeling of Derek's beard.

Derek whispers, "I want to kiss you," and Stiles knees practically buckle. 

But, he wants to do this right, so with great self-control, he pulls back. Seeing Derek's confused and upset face, he says as such. 

"I want our first kiss to be on our first date. You need to romance me, and I will settle for nothing less, Mister Hale."

Derek smiles. "You deserve nothing less that the utmost romancing." he says, face as serious as it could ever be, before leading Stiles out of his classroom and down to the car park. 

"Hey, Stiles?" 

"Yeah?"

"Will you go on a date with me, tonight?"

Stiles smiles, and steps a little closer to Derek, resting his head on his shoulder. "Only if you let me drive your car," he says, noticing they've come to a stop near a black Camaro. 

He half expects Derek to say no, but is pleasantly surprised when the man places keys in to his hand with a soft brush of lips on his cheek. 

"Deal."


End file.
